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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24632011">Small Thoughtful Steps</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account'>orphan_account</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: Rebels</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Bad Flirting, Cunnilingus, Developing Relationship, Enthusiastic Consent, F/M, Hand Jobs, Pre-Star Wars: Rebels, it's 2k of banter and sex not sure what else to say</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-06-09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-06-09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 00:54:09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Explicit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,006</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24632011</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Kanan realizes he's in love with Hera Syndulla.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Kanan Jarrus/Hera Syndulla</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>41</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Small Thoughtful Steps</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I did think, let’s go about this slowly.<br/>This is important. This should take<br/>some really deep thought. We should take<br/>small thoughtful steps.<br/>But, bless us, we didn’t.<br/>- Mary Oliver</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p><br/>
The first time Kanan and Hera fuck, it’s on a rush of adrenaline after successfully outflying three TIEs in an asteroid field after a missed tracker fob on a stolen shipment had signalled a passing patrol that they were in possession of supplies they shouldn’t have been in.  The stolen shipment has since been thrown out the hold and is floating some hundred kilometres behind them, but the panic hadn’t abated until the <em>Ghost</em> had been latched onto a large asteroid, all non-vital electronics shut down, for almost nine hours without seeing any Imperial ships or probes. Sometime between hours seven and eight, Kanan had made an offhand joke about staying warm together, Hera hadn’t said no, and then she was straddling Kanan’s lap. It was quick and messy and the ‘fresher wasn’t working so they had to sit there, sweaty and sticky, until Hera deemed it safe to turn the power back on.<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
It becomes semi-regular. After a hair-raising mission, Hera slips into Kanan’s room and they burn off their stress with Kanan balls deep into Hera. Not every mission, but often enough that the next time they’re close to a station they stop by a medcenter to get suppressant shots. Kanan realizes he hasn’t been with anyone else other than Hera in months. It scares him on some distant level that doesn’t accept that it’s just stress relief, bound to happen when compatible adults are stuck together in close quarters for extended periods of time. It doesn’t mean anything other than pleasure.<br/>
<br/>
One day, after an insane flying stunt that saw Kanan and Chopper screaming while Hera threaded the <em>Ghost</em> through an arch so small the ship’s belly plating scraped the rock, the two of them are playing dejarik on the <em>Ghost</em>’s choppy holotable and Hera asks if Kanan would like to come to her room that night, gazing steadily up at him over the rim of her favorite chipped mug. Kanan sputters, hesitating just long enough that Hera takes his last player from him, winning handily.<br/>
<br/>
“Were you just trying to get me to lose?” he asks, hitting the table to start a new round. For a machine without any personality or sentience, the holotable is sometimes more annoying than Chopper.<br/>
<br/>
She grins, pointed teeth flashing in a way that goes straight to his groin, and nudges his leg with her foot. “Maybe a bit. But the offer still stands, if you’re interested.” Her right lek is curled over her shoulder, twisted up in a way that signals <em>no pressure</em>. Her left lek is looped over itself and flushed in a clear come-on.<br/>
<br/>
He pretends to think it over as they play, but he knows as well as she does that he’s not going to turn her down. The adrenaline of the day is still humming through his veins in a way that makes him want to burn it off by fucking or getting fucked. It’s not like they have much else to do with their remaining time in hyperspace, with the stolen gas stored safely in the cargo hold and Chopper (hopefully) watching the helm.<br/>
<br/>
When Hera gets up, he follows. She checks briefly in on the cargo, then the helm where she argues briefly with Chopper in Ryl. Chopper blats something to her and Hera rolls her eyes, taking Kanan’s hand in hers and leading him back out. Kanan can’t resist the urge to make a face at Chopper as they leave, and the angry little astromech shrieks something that gets cut off as the helm door shuts behind them.<br/>
<br/>
“Sorry,” Hera says, “Didn’t want him barging in like last time.”<br/>
<br/>
It takes all Kanan’s willpower to keep from making a quip about using Chopper as target practice next time he interrupts them. Unfortunately, he wants to get laid tonight and Chopper jokes aren’t conducive to a happy Hera, who shoots a sharp look at him, probably aware of what Kanan wasn’t saying. He gives her his most roguish grin, and she rolls her eyes with a fond smile tugging at the corner of her mouth.<br/>
<br/>
She taps the code for her door and gestures to her room with a flourish. The floor is clean, but the bed and a small table she must have welded on herself are covered in spare parts, and the walls are plastered floor-to-ceiling with maps, schematics, and pictures of various people and places, all annotated in blocky Ryl. “Like what you see?” she asks with a flirtatious wink.<br/>
<br/>
“It’s very… you,” Kanan responds diplomatically, laughing when she smacks his shoulder and pushes him towards her bed. When he sits down, there’s something hard beneath his butt and he frowns, pulling out a long bolt. “Do you sleep with all this in your bed?”<br/>
<br/>
Hera huffs. “Of course not, I was just working on Chop this morning. Help me clear the bed off?”<br/>
<br/>
“You just brought me in here to help with chores, didn’t you. Is this getting factored into my monthly paycheck?” Hera doesn’t seem too fussed about where the parts go, so Kanan lets them fall onto the floor as she shakes her sheets clean and kicks the various parts away towards the walls.<br/>
<br/>
She snorts and steps back, apparently satisfied with the cleanliness of her bed, and closes the door to her room, dimming the lights and pinning Kanan with a heavy green gaze. Kanan’s words trail off and he swallows, suddenly aware of the heat in her quarters, comfortable to a Twi’lek but edging on too-warm for a Human. He sits there, fully clothed with heat pooling in his stomach as she shucks off her flight suit with a careless ease and unbinds her lekku.<br/>
<br/>
For all of his many vices, Kanan has never been a Twi’lek chaser, but he can’t deny the appeal of seeing her freed lekku curling around her biceps, slowly flushing a deep green. He’s fully hard, the tightness of his pants becoming uncomfortable, but he doesn’t go to release himself, just watches as Hera unbuckles his shoulder pauldron with deft fingers.<br/>
<br/>
Kanan lets her manipulate his arms so that she can slip his sweater off, tips back his head and breathes out harshly through his nose as she moves on to his pants. Hera frees him and jacks him off slowly, her hand cool against his length. His hips thrust upwards involuntarily, and Hera lets go of him to trace a finger down the lines of his chest, lingering on his scars and leaving trails of electricity behind them. He shudders.<br/>
<br/>
Kanan stifles a groan at the loss of contact, then moans aloud when Hera leans down to lick a nipple. This is the first time she’s slowly explored his body like this, and Kanan distantly wonders if he’s allowed to do the same to her. <em>Later</em>, he thinks, throwing his head back as she takes him into her mouth, swirling her tongue around his head. For now, he tries to keep his embarrassing noises to a minimum, tries to keep any of the thoughts rattling around his head from flowing out of his mouth as she cups his balls, gently kneading them before releasing them to circle lower, down to his taint.<br/>
<br/>
He swears when she hollows her cheeks and <em>sucks</em> and it’s like a dam is broken. He twists the sheets around his hands and begs her for “More, please,” his mind buzzing with pleasure. Hera obliges, and he rambles almost incoherently as she continues sucking, a firm hand on his lower belly keeping him from thrusting up. He’s so caught up in the pleasure of her hands on him, her mouth on him, that Kanan only has a few seconds to warn her that he’s about to come before he spills over into her hand.<br/>
<br/>
Hera’s laughing quietly, Kanan realizes as his breathing slows down  and his brain starts to work again. “You were chatty,” she says, crawling up to lay next to him, one lek curling heavily over his chest. “I liked it.”<br/>
<br/>
“Really? I’ll be sure to talk even more then,” Kanan says.<br/>
<br/>
She snorts, lightly flicks his chin. “Only in bed. You talk enough as is.”<br/>
<br/>
“Me? I would never.”<br/>
<br/>
He can feel Hera turn her face into his shoulder, feel her lips curve up into a grin. <em>This is dangerous</em>, he thinks somewhere below the ease of the banter and the reawakening hum of interest.<br/>
<br/>
“Up for round two?” Hera asks several minutes later, when the sweat has dried off Kanan’s body.<br/>
<br/>
“Shit, I never got you off, did I?” Kanan sits up, dislodging Hera from her position on his chest.<br/>
<br/>
She rolls over onto her back, props herself up onto her elbows, and spreads her legs with a wink. “Better late than never, darling.” She’s dripping wet, and Kanan makes a note to offer to wash her sheets later.<br/>
<br/>
He flushes at the pet name, his cock stirring again as he maneuvers her hips so that she’s propped up on a pillow. He presses her legs further open and leans in, pressing a light kiss to her thigh. She tenses beneath his lips, and he stays there for a few moments until she relaxes, winds a hand into his hair in a silent urge to go on.<br/>
<br/>
Kanan hesitates, torn between using his hands or his mouth or both when Hera makes the decision for him, gently tugging his face into her. She hasn’t showered since before the excitement of the day and she tastes like metallic Twi’lek stress sweat, but Kanan doesn’t mind. He steadies himself by hooking his arms around her hips, which gives the bonus of being able to feel the way she shivers as he laps at her clit and teases her open.<br/>
<br/>
Hera’s not nearly as responsive as past lovers he had, but the subtlety of her reactions are more enjoyable as a result. The way she twitches when he takes her clit into his mouth and gently sucks, the way she presses up into him when he licks deep into her are satisfying in a way that makes Kanan feel lightheaded. Or maybe that’s just because he hasn’t gotten enough air.<br/>
<br/>
His jaw is beginning to ache when Hera’s hand clenches painfully in his hair as she comes with a sigh. Kanan jerks back, startled at the sudden, but not entirely unwelcome pain.<br/>
<br/>
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to-” Hera says and trails off as they make eye contact. She’s flushed a beautiful jade green, her tattoos stark yellow against her lekku and shoulders. A similar green must be dripping from his goatee, Kanan thinks and licks his lips, tasting her wetness. He’s completely unclothed, his cock twitching against his stomach, and it makes him feel stupid vulnerable with his back to the door but-<br/>
<br/>
He knows he can trust Hera, that he’s safer with her than he has been for years. Hera’s hand slips from his hair to cup his cheek and Kanan leans into it, closing his eyes. Kanan’s head feels full and empty at once and he realizes that maybe he doesn’t want Hera to take her hand away and maybe if they could stay like this forever he would be happy. Pleasure burns hot and deep in his gut, and when Hera twines her fingers around his he comes hard, shuddering. He’s about to cry, he realizes distantly as Hera pulls him up towards her, flips him so that he’s on his back and she’s leaning over him, one arm planted above his head and a lek curling around the curve of his jaw.<br/>
<br/>
She gently combs back a lock of hair sticking to Kanan’s forehead before frowning and leaning in closer. Slowly, she brushes her thumb beneath his eye, swiping away a stray tear before returning her hand to where it was cupping his cheek earlier. Her eyes are soft as she leans down to rest their foreheads together, thumb stroking his cheekbone. They stay like that, breaths mingling, and Kanan looks up at Hera and thinks, <em>fuck</em>.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>It's been ages since I've written fic, but Kanan and Hera are so fascinating together and have such an interesting dynamic. I hope you enjoyed.<br/>Thank you so much to whip for beta-reading!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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